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Areas of Research
Perennialism, Asceticism and Mysticism, Buddhist Doctrine, Nikayas of the Pali Canon, Early Mahayana Buddhism
More Areas of Interest
South Asian Religions, Hellenistic Philosophy, Gnosticism, Christian Mysticism, Patristics, Syriac Christianity, Christian Monasticism, Sufism, Taoism, Comparative Spiritualties, Inter-Religious Dialogue.
Past Areas of Research
Christological Controversies, Christology, Trinitarianism, Development of the Papacy, Catholic Doctrine
Comparative Spiritualties
I am most interested in comparative spirituality. After all, spirituality is the essence of religion. The religions are in many ways very different from each other, but there is nevertheless a unity of spirituality in them. For example, all of the major world religions share these essential principles in common: realizing the unsatisfactoriness of unspiritual existence, observing basic morality, doing compassionate actions, keeping the passions of the animal nature under control, purifying the mind, eradicating the vices, acquiring the virtues, experiencing a profound transformation of the inner being, the practices of discipline, meditation, prayer, and adoration, and ultimately returning to the divine reality which leads to supreme beatitude. This is the universal spiritual path that is the essence of every major religion. They all go on to interpret it in various ways, with their particular emphases, external forms, and additional elements that often completely contradict each other. I think it is fascinating to see how this plays out in the various traditions. It is also interesting how they interacted with each other throughout history and especially in the modern era of inter-religious dialogue. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done in this area.
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